The game is GM-less and designed for single-session play at the end of which a winner is determined.

The titular roach is a soul-eating telepathic insect bent on destroying human civilization.

Jason Morningstar thought of the core ideas behind The Shab-al-Hiri Roach while thinking about both the topic of Lovecraftian horror and his own personal fear of cockroaches.

[1]: 290  The Shab-al-Hiri Roach continued to undergo revisions as Morningstar, Steve Segedy, and Patrick M. Murphy founded Bully Pulpit Games, and the game was in its 45th revision (since they started counting) by Thanksgiving 2005.

[1]: 291  Most of those 200 reprints went to the company's new partner, Indie Press Revolution, who got the game into wider circulation and sold their 180 copies by September 26.